Door check and hold open



June'l6, 1959 c. K. MILLER v 2,890,477 000R CHECK AND HOLD OPEN filed April 12, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 ag s m "1W .i in, ,1 i i F16 2 E "23 f /"i 22 r ii'f "T F Z ATTORNEYS- June 16, 1959 v c. K. MILLER 2,890,477

DOOR CHECK AND HOLD OPEN Filed April 12, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. CALVIN K MILLEQ A TTORNEYS United States Patent DOOR CIECK AND HOLD OPEN Calvin K. Miller, Royal Oak, Mich., assignor to Soss Manufacturing Company, Detroit, Mich, a corporation of Maine' Application April 12, 1957, Serial No. 652,520

2 Claims. C1. 16-140) This invention relates to door checks and hold opens. It has as its object a door check and hold open using a set of cams in connection with a compression spring for the purpose of holding the door open in connection with a coiled wire spring clutch. This device is an improvement over the door check and hold open shown and described in my prior application Ser. No. 585,776, filed May 18, 1956.

In that application, a coil spring clutch was used in connection with a housing with a pair of slots operating in connection with the spring ends. In the present application, a C-shaped housing operates in connection with two cams and a coil spring clutch to hold the door checked at any desired position so that it will not swing back on one getting into or out of the automobile Whereon my device is installed.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary elevation of an automobile body showing the door check and hold open in broken lines.

Fig. 2 is a section on line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a section on line 33 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a section on line 44 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a section on line 55 of Fig. 2 showing the door closed.

Fig. 6 is a similar section showing the door opening and the upper spring end contacting the C-shaped housing to open the spring and make the door opening easy.

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary vertical section showing the two cams engaged to hold the door in open position.

1 designates the body of an automobile, 2 the front door, which is hinged at the top at 3 and at the bottom at 4'. The top hinge 3 is provided with a hinge leaf suitably secured to the automobile body and having spaced knuckles mating with a knuckle that carries the hinge pin 4 which, in turn supports the hinge arm 5 which has a gooseneck shape of well known type and is suitably secured to door 2. Spot welded at 6 to the lower hinge knuckle is a O-shaped housing 7. Spot welded to this housing is a lower stationary cam 8 which has a plurality of beveled teeth 9. Tube 10 is pivoted in the C-shaped housing and has surrounding it a coil spring clutch 11 with an upper end 12 and a lower end 13. Projecting downwardly from the lower end of this tube is a shaft 14 around which is a coil compression spring 15 which abuts against the washer 16 and the nut 17 which may be turned on the threaded end of this shaft 14 to adjust the pressure of the compression spring 15. The tube 10 has at its lower end a floating toothed cam 18 whose beveled teeth engage the beveled teeth 9 of the lower fixed cam 8. The floating cam is attached to tube 10. The upper end of the tube 10 carries the slotted arm 20 which has a slot 21 in which engages the pin 22 on the hinge arm 5.

This door check and hold open operates in the following manner: In Fig. 2 the device is shown in door hold open position. The two cams have their beveled teeth engaged and the door will be held open by the engagement of these two cams. Now, in order to close the door one has to push hard enough on the door so that Patented June 16, 1959 the teeth of the cam 18 will climb the inclines on the teeth of the fixed cam 8 against the pressure of the spring 15.

The movement of the upper cam tends to shift the tube, shaft 14 and coil spring clutch upwardly against the resistance of the compression spring 15 and this resistance of the compression spring 15 has to be overcome in order to disengage the two cams, but, when this is overcome the arm 5 together with the arm 20 is free to turn because the spur 23 welded to the C-shaped housing is engaged by one end of the coil spring clutch which is now turning with tube 10 about which it is wrapped and this tends to open the coil spring clutch and leave the parts free to turn in closing the door. Whenever the closing movement stops, and slight opening movement is made, the door will then be left in,

checked and hold open position at the new place and the operation of separating the cam parts against the resistance of the spring 15 will then have to be repeated in order to close the door.

When the door is fully closed, the cam teeth are separated. As soon as one opens the door, the hinge arm 5 turns with the pin 22 turning the arm 20, the tube 10 and shaft 14. The floating cam 18 moves and the two cams have their teeth engaged and tube 10, shaft 14 and clutch spring 11 move upwardly. The coil spring clutch, which grips tube 10, is turned until its lower end 13 contacts the wall of the C-shaped housing and this allows the door to open in an easy way.

As already explained, in order to close the door one has to first overcome the resistance of the compression spring on the two cams whereupon the upper end of the coil spring encounters the fixed spur 23 on the C-shaped housing and opens the coil spring clutch and allows the door to close easily.

What I claim is:

l. A combined door check and hold open having in combination a movable hinge leaf adapted to support a door for opening movement from closed position, a fixed hinge leaf, a C-shaped housing fastened to the latter, a spur fastened to one end of the C-shaped housing, a fixed cam with beveled teeth fastened to the other end of the housing, a tube and shaft supported to tumin unison in the C-shaped housing, a slotted arm secured on one end of the shaft, a head on the other end of said shaft, a pin on the movable hinge arm engaging the slot in the arm to cause the slotted arm, the tube and the shaft to turn in unison when the movable hinge leaf turns, a floating cam having teeth adapted to mesh with the teeth of the fixed cam, the teeth of said cams being disengaged when the door is closed and immediately meshed when the door starts to open, a coil compression spring between said head on the end of the shaft and the lower end of the C-shaped housing, a coil spring clutch around said tube and shaft having one end adapted to engage a wall of the C-shaped housing when the door opens to uncoil the clutch and permit the easy opening of the door and the other end adapted to engage said spur to uncoil the clutch spring to allow easy closing of the door after an initial closing elfort separates the two cams.

2. The combination claimed in claim 1 wherein the end of the said shaft having the head is threaded and the head is formed by a nut which can be turned on the threaded end of the shaft to adjust the resistance of the coil compression spring.

Staples Sept. 3, 1907 March May 20, 1933 

